Monday, February 28, 2011

Rhythms from the musky jungle floor rise like steam through a pounding onslaught of steel drums, saxophone, and the most terrifyingly violent synths this side of a Throbbing Gristle album.
Listening to this will make you want to commit bodily harm against mall security cops, flip porsches right side up, feed wild doe, and get in knife fights with Freddie Mercury chain-mail wearing mutherfuckers all night long.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

An offshoot of Root...so you know it's gotta be good!
This is Igor's band and it really is good guys. Hysteria In Coma is some blasting and quirky black metal that really sounds like what Root might sound like today if they would've kept on with the sound they had on Hell Symphony...only more brutal. So go ahead, give Igor some love, you know he needs it if he's resorted to raping his guitar!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Mork Gryning's eponymous record is slowly but surely making it's way into my favorite black metal albums of all time. I'm not sure how this band, and this album in particular have flown under the radar for as long as they have. Hopefully that'll change, although it matters not for the band, cuz they broke up right after releasing this in '05...but what a swansong!
The centrepiece of Mork are the riffs which vary between tech thrash, punishing polyrhythmic death, and epic melodic black metal. The melodies are not your typical Swedish black metal fare, but are clearly Nordic...folk without being aggressively folky if you catch my drift. Definitely epic in a subtle way. Songwriting is akin to being dropped from Valhalla to find yourself plummeting ever faster into the waiting maw of a fiery hell only to be snapped from certain annihilation by some sort of giant flying creature...maybe that giant fucking dog from Neverending Story. So in a word the songwriting is exhilarating. Special mention has to be given to the drumming which is some of the most inventively tight I have ever heard...a black metal Jarzombek. Mork Gryning is a rousing success that combines the tastefulness of Dark Tranquility circa Damage Done, the ravishness of Keep of Kalessin circa their Reclaim ep, the funky obtuseness of Atrocity circa Hallucinations, and the distinct baroque choral sensibility of Gentle Giant circa anytime. Highly Highly Highly recommended.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Anapparatus are a hardcore outfit based out of Indianapolis that released this ep way back in 2004. Definitely a furious chaotic exercise in dense math grind athleticism. No matter how wired things get, the boys sprinkle in hooks and melodies galore to make you keep hitting the repeat button again and again. In fact, I had the Inner Workings of Jealousy on repeat for a good hour at work the other day, and am afraid I made quite the fool of myself with my air double bass drumming and air pencil blastbeating! A great fun little record.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning having some hair of the dog that bit ya (A&W with peppermint schnapps) nukin' up some sausage slim jims and coffee creamer with frito scoop chips and listening to this mess. Oh and what do we have for desert here...Marlboro Menthols
I think I'm in hell.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Charming psych outsider metal from where else but Iceland! Sonically similar to the Legend album I posted a little while ago, but with a heavier Sabbath vibe which I enjoy quite a bit. I hear through the grapevine that one Tommy Seebach had a hand in this smess. If you don't know who Tom Seebach is definitely look him up, preferably on youtube.
This fucker was released in '73 which puts it way ahead of it's time, just listen to the excellent Jesus Freaks and 1999 and you will hear some serious anti-christian armaggedon type shit goin' down..."I met some freaks of Jesus Christ during the last week of July...ughh, some disgusting people...they wanted me to join their cult, but I said to them I believe in myself..and so I do...OH Yes I DoooOOaaaAHH! They believe in Jesus, we believe in us...They believe in Jesus, we believe in OoouuurRRssssSSeeeeeeaaasEELVES!!!"

Thursday, February 17, 2011

To my ears, early Antaeus is generally more atmospheric and "laid back" than the flesh cutting sonic onslaught they would later cultivate. This demo from '96 possesses an ever so slight pastoral "countrified" sound...guess this was back before they started worshipping Satan and were still milking cows...I really dig it.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Another good one for that thaw of deep winter. Weird and melancholy blackness with plenty of great acoustic interludes and a sense of humor. Can you stand George Carlin clips being played over folky black metal riffs? Tis a question only the most hearty of soul can answer...

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A twisting tortuous journey through the mind of Swedish midget upstart Tony Sarka aka "It"and his regular sized pal "ALL"...the duo perhaps best known for the psychopathic sounds of Abruptim, and many other lesser black metal acts (Vondur, War, etc...). Ophthalamia is definitely the most musically interesting of their projects, being a doomy and weird take on black metal (probably more traditional heavy metal than black). Now and then I'm reminded of a cruder version of Root's Kargeras...mostly because both albums deal with telling the story of self-created fantasyworlds. Prog and Folk influences pop up every now and then, but Via Dolorosa maintains a dank and dirty, lugubriously melancholic atmosphere...the perfect soundtrack to this time of year when things are starting to thaw, but everything is still dead.
Speaking of dead, you will be if you spell "Ophthalamia" wrong; a warning from It..."We will kill them so bad that they will probably die. I am so sick and tired of all the stupid idiots that can not spell right to the mighty word of Ophtalamia...Uppsss...My light saber will cut through their flesh like hot butter through a knife. And they will regret then, when they are dead, that they did not pay more attention."

Monday, February 14, 2011

My words cannot describe how kickass this album is, so I defer to the synopsis the indomitable Pat Bateman gives during these charming scenes from American Psycho....I couldn't agree more with his points....except for Huey Lewis...ewwww.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

My favorite album from Iceland, and that's actually saying a whole helluva lot! Orka I Myrkri is rabid yet melodic black thrash done excruciatingly tight'n'right. Eldur, the main man behind Potentiam, is a musical dilettante. His sound has drastically changed from album to album, but it's all done to perfection...from the cinematic icicleness of Balsyn to Orka's thrash attak to Years In der Shadows power metal escapades...it's all good. I believe they used the same producer that Sigur Ros uses, so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Awesome melodic riffs that will stay in your head for days. Strangely stilted drumming adds to the down home charm. You can feel the love and care that mainman Overlord Nasty Metatheos put into this. Check out Princesse fo real.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Forgotten (but not by me) went for broke on L'Aldila (named after Italian horror flick) and came up from the damp earth smelling like a rose. Sludgy thick bizarrely disgusting molten metal that creates a mood of righteous distress!